Once again, a Medal of Honor title will have something to do with Battlefield. This time around, those that pre-order Medal of Honor Warfighter will get the Limited Edition version that contains access to the Battlefield 4 Beta. Of course, this now publicly admits that Battlefield 4 is coming for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC in the late fall or holiday season of 2013, if you will.

The news that Battlefield 4 is coming next year isn’t necessarily news that many fans were looking to hear. Rumors of DICE and EA holding Battlefield 4 for release on Xbox Next/720 and PS4 were rumored to be the course that DICE and EA had planned to chart; after all, the company had just launched Battlefield Premium, which takes the Battlefield 3 experience into 2013. Rumors of a release of a Battlefield 2143 were also hinted at, but we are not sure where that road is leading at the moment.

As for Medal of Honor Warfighter, EA developer Danger Close has gone it solo this time around. While they are using the Frostbite 2 engine, DICE is apparently in an advisory support role and is doing none of the actual development this time around. The game looked good at E3 and perhaps even much better than many had expected; still, it is being released in a window that is seeing a number of shooters being released, so it will have to do exceptionally well to gain the attention of gamers.

Medal of Honor Warfighter is available for pre-order now, and has a release date of October 32rd in North America and October 26th in Europe. The game is being released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

Sources tell us that Electronic Arts is satisfied with the release of Medal of Honor. From the dark corners, sources admit to us that the reviews could have been a bit better and the sales could have been a little stronger, but overall to restart the franchise they are off and running.

The best news for Medal of Honor is that the company has confirmed that they have sold over two million copies across the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. This news is good for those wanting to see a sequel, as from the whispers that we have heard it does appear that a sequel will be green lighted by EA for development.

While EA has not officially committed to producing a sequel yet, we suspect that an announcement will be coming at some point next year that a sequel is in development. Don’t expect to see a sequel in 2011, however, as sources suggest that it will be a 2012 release.

Electronic Arts was said to be a little worried about the sales numbers for Medal of Honor that are just now starting to tumble in. The state of worry is due to the “all over the place” review scores that the newly released Medal of Honor received. The initial sales numbers are in and EA can now breathe a little easier.

According to the reports that we are hearing, the new Medal of Honor has had a good first week run, with the title selling over 1.7+ million copies on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. This means that the title is off to a solid start and it looks to be able to achieve the sales goal of four million units. (As we told you previously, it was revealed that in order for the game to see a sequel, the title would have to sell close to four million copies across the platforms.)

To celebrate the excellent first week of sales, news comes from EA that the first DLC pack for Medal of Honor will be free. The download pack, which will be called “Clean Sweep,” will add the new Clean Sweep game play mode in multiplayer as well as two new maps. Players will be able to download it on November 2nd when it is set to arrive.

Of course, in order to get the DLC content you must have purchased the game “new”; those that purchased it used will be forced to buy the DLC content if they want it.

The reviews for the new Medal of Honor have been rolling in from across the Internet, and the scores are painting a confusing picture for the just-released title. Despite strong early buzz, the scores from a number of reviews are not as good as Electronic Arts might have hoped.

Reviews have used phrases to describe the game as “not-so-special operations,” “passable,” “technically competent,” and perhaps the harshest words, calling the game “one of the biggest disappointments of 2010.” Ouch. What is surprising is that the scores are all over the place, ranging from as low as 6 to as high as 9. Currently, the game has a metascore of 75 on Metacritic with 27 reviews in.

It seems that much of the complaints about the game center on the campaign mode and the fact that it isn’t as good as the multiplayer mode. Of course, many reviews also call attention to the fact that the campaign mode and the multiplayer mode feel like two different games, which they are. As we told you previously, the campaign mode was done by EA’s Danger Close studio using the Unreal engine; while the multiplayer mode is handled by DICE using their own Frostbite engine, which is the same engine that powered Battlefield Bad Company 2.

Of course, a number of reviews point out flaws in the game itself in both modes, as well as negative comments about the short length of the campaign mode that most reviews indicate will only take you 6 to 8 hours to complete. In addition, some reviews suggest that the campaign mode storyline just isn’t that compelling.

In the end, it seems that the reviews and opinions of this title are all over the map, and that could have a negative effect on sales. Despite a highest ever pre-order rate in the history of a Medal of Honor title, the controversy surrounding the release of this title just might not be enough for it to be a serious challenger this time around; but it does seem, however, that EA is trying to get things pointed in the right direction for the future of the franchise. We doubt that MOH is going to have little (if any) impact on Call of Duty: Black Ops and it could struggle to achieve its goal of four million in sales.

EA’s stock took a hit and was down a bit as the reviews started rolling in for MOH.

Once again, the gaming world (and arguably common sense) is affected by political correctness, albeit by a less margin than we’re used to seeing. Medal of Honor devs have now decided to rename the multiplayer “Taliban” into “Opposing Force”.

It has been a burning issue these past few months, despite many open-minded and honest people saying they couldn’t care less about it. Indeed, executive producer Greg Goodrich writes on his blog that the majority of feedback received by the company “has been overwhelmingly positive.” Note that the game still remains as it is, the only change is in the name.

On the other hand, with the political climate being as it is, it’s quite understandable seeing the company thread these waters carefully. The guys made a game they thought everyone should like and it’s not worth losing face (or sales) over a simple name. After all, nobody wants to be labeled “against us” and they sure don’t want to leave the impression that they don’t care, even if they really didn’t (which we sincerely doubt).

A wise man once said that words in themselves mean nothing, it’s the context we give them and the speaker himself that will ultimately make them “good” or “bad”. Now however, wisdom seems to be more of a curse on the bearer than anything else. But hey - what else did we expect from the race that wants to ban plastic guns but keeps the real ones?

Pre-order numbers for the new Medal of Honor title appear to be gaining some momentum. The news that Electronic Arts needs to ship three million copies of the title or they will not be looking at a sequel for the title could have had at least something to do with it.

The game has been under fire for some content decisions which are believed to have helped elevate the buzz prior to launch, but EA still isn’t expecting the game to outsell the recently released Halo: Reach or Call of Duty: Black Ops. Still, the release is the most aggressive push possible to help elevate EA’s status as a premier source of FPS titles. The company is hopeful that Medal of Honor will help get the publisher back on track in the FPS space.

PC gamers should be able to get a taste of Medal of Honor on the PC when the company starts its beta for the PC multiplayer demo which is expected to arrive for download later today. EA is still expecting the title to ship on time with releases on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC platforms. The title is slated to arrive in North America on October 12th.

The Army which got its big break by beating the worst mercenary force in Europe, has decided to ban a computer game which enables them to take pot shots at their fellow soldiers. Medal of Honor has created a storm in a teacup because it allowed players to play Taliban soldiers in a shoot-em-up.

Game Stop had already decided not to sell the game on US bases, but now it seems the US Army is ordering its troops not to play the game. "Medal of Honor" by Electronic Arts hits stores October 12 and while troops will be allowed to own copies, they will have to buy them off-base.

Major General Bruce Casella, who commands the Army & Air Force Exchange Service, made the decision last week, with the Navy quickly following suit. Kathleen Martin, a spokeswoman for the Navy Exchange Service Command, said the game won't be sold at any of the Navy's 104 exchange shops "out of respect for the men and women serving and their families’’.

We are surprisingly supportive of the ban. The number of friendly fire casualties caused by American forces is huge. When they start flinging as many bullets as they can at the enemy, the last thing that you want is for a battle stressed US soldier to forget who they are supposed to be pointing their guns at.

Sources tell us that the Medal of Honor Beta for the Xbox 360 has again been delayed. While the Beta has already been going on the PlayStation 3 and PC for a bit now, the Xbox 360 version was delayed due to some problems specific to the 360 version.

The latest from our sources is that developers are working on getting the Xbox 360 version corrected so that the Beta on that platform can start, but they have not been able to fix all of the issues yet. The good news is that EA is saying that they will extend the 360 version of the beta to give Xbox 360 players a chance to experience Medal of Honor’s multiplayer beta.

The game is slated to arrive on all three platforms on October 12th, which actually isn’t that far away now. Despite our poking around trying to find the exact nature of the issues that are causing the problems with the Xbox 360 version of MOH, we have not been able to find anyone who will talk. All we know for certain is that it is broken and they are trying to fix it.